DER DUNKLE KRISTALL wird fortgesetzt

Fast drei­ßig Jah­re hat  es gedau­ert, Gerüch­te und Ankün­di­gun­gen gab es immer wie­der, jetzt ist es offi­zi­ell: Omni­lab Media und die Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny wer­den gemein­sam eine Fort­set­zung zum Fan­ta­sy-Klas­si­ker THE DARK CRYSTAL realisieren.

Der zwei­te Teil trägt den Titel THE POWER OF THE DARK CRYSTAL und die Geschich­te wird hun­der­te von Jah­ren nach den Ereig­nis­sen des ers­ten Teils han­deln, einer Zeit in der wie­der Dun­kel­heit über über die Welt gekom­men ist. Die Hand­lung ver­folgt die Aben­teu­er eines geheim­nis­vol­len Feu­er­mäd­chens, das zusam­men mit einem aus­ge­sto­ße­nen Gel­f­ling einen Split­ter des legen­dä­ren Kris­talls stiehlt, um die ster­ben­de Son­ne im Inne­ren des Pla­ne­ten neu zu entfachen.

Regie füh­ren wer­den die Zwil­lings­brü­der Peter und Micha­el Spie­rig (UNDEAD, DAYBREAKERS), das Dreh­buch stammt von Annet­te Duffy und David Odell, es pro­du­ziert die aus­tra­li­sche Fir­ma Omni­lab Media bzw. deren Toch­ter Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment. Der Fan­ta­sy­künst­ler Bri­an Froud, der für den ers­ten Teil das Design über­nahm, wird dies erfreu­li­cher­wei­se auch in der Fort­set­zung wie­der tun.

Die Pro­du­zen­ten haben ange­kün­digt, dass der Film zwar in 3D pro­du­ziert wer­den wird und selbst­ver­ständ­lich auch sta­te-of-the-art Spe­zi­al­ef­fek­te beinhal­tet, aber nicht kom­plett als CGI rea­li­siert wer­den soll; wie in THE DARK CRYSTAL wird man auf rea­le Schau­spie­ler und Pup­pen zurück­grei­fen. Muti­ge und groß­ar­ti­ge Entscheidung!

Ein Start­ter­min wur­de noch nicht offi­zi­ell ange­kün­digt, man geht all­ge­mein aber von einem Release irgend­wann in 2011 aus.

via Cynx via Geek­Ty­rant

DVD-Cover DER DUNKLE KRISTALL Copy­right Colum­bia Tristar Home Video, erhält­lich z.B. bei Ama­zon

Die voll­stän­di­ge (eng­li­sche) Pres­se­mel­dung im erwei­ter­ten Arti­kel (die steht selbst­ver­ständ­lich nicht unter CC!).

OMINLAB MEDIA AND THE JIM HENSON COMPANY JOIN FORCES

TO LAUNCH THE AUSTRALIAN FEATURE PRODUCTION

OF THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED

POWER OF THE DARK CRYSTAL

Sequel to Hen­son clas­sic film “The Dark Crys­tal” to be finan­ced and pro­du­ced by Omni­lab Media in Aus­tra­lia and exe­cu­ti­ve pro­du­ced by The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny. 3D, live action, visu­al effects film to be one of the lar­gest Aus­tra­li­an pro­duc­tions ever.

HOLLYWOOD, CA May 04, 2010 – In a joint announ­ce­ment by Omni­lab Media’s Chris­to­pher Mapp and The Jim Hen­son Company’s Lisa Hen­son, Aus­tra­li­an based Omni­lab Media is tea­ming up with The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny to bring the much anti­ci­pa­ted fan­ta­sy sequel, “Power of the Dark Crys­tal” to the big screen in ste­reo­scopic 3D. The high­ly anti­ci­pa­ted film will be among the most ambi­tious pro­jects to ever be pro­du­ced in Australia.

Power of the Dark Crys­tal will be pro­du­ced by the Aus­tra­lia based pro­duc­tion arm of Omni­lab Media, Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment. The Jim Hen­son Company’s exe­cu­ti­ve pro­du­cers are Bri­an Hen­son, Lisa Hen­son and Jason Lust. Omni­lab Media’s exe­cu­ti­ve pro­du­cers are Chris­to­pher Mapp, Mat­thew Street and David Whea­ly. Cine­mar­ket Films’ Peter D. Gra­ves (“Ter­mi­na­tor Sal­va­ti­on”) rounds out the exe­cu­ti­ve pro­du­cer team.

Peter Spie­rig and Micha­el Spie­rig, wri­ters and direc­tors of “Undead” and most recent­ly, “Day­brea­kers,” have come aboard to direct the screen­play writ­ten by Aus­tra­li­an Craig Pear­ce (“Moulin Rouge,” “Strict­ly Ball­room,” “Romeo + Juliet”) based on an ori­gi­nal script by Annet­te Duffy and David Odell. The legen­da­ry fan­ta­sy artist Bri­an Froud will repri­se his role as con­cep­tu­al desi­gner of the film, which will use a stun­ning mix of live action and tra­di­tio­nal pup­pe­try com­bi­ned with visu­al and spe­cial effects pro­du­ced ent­i­re­ly in Aus­tra­lia. Omni­lab-affi­lia­ted Ilou­ra (“Whe­re the Wild Things Are,” “The Paci­fic,” “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”) has alrea­dy begun work on the film’s com­plex CGI ele­ments. With this team in place, next steps will be to secu­re world­wi­de distribution.

“Power of the Dark Crys­tal is an exci­ting and ambi­tious under­ta­king and, having worked on pre­vious pro­jects with the top-notch talent and crews that Aus­tra­lia offers, we know we have assem­bled the right team to deli­ver the sequel to one of the most endu­rin­gly popu­lar tit­les in the Hen­son libra­ry. Peter Spie­rig and Micha­el Spie­rig are sure to crea­te a film that will con­ti­nue the lega­cy of the ori­gi­nal and exceed the expec­ta­ti­ons of our loy­al fans,” said Lisa Hen­son, CEO of the The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny. “We are espe­cial­ly enthu­si­astic to be working with Omni­lab Media, a strong and gro­wing for­ce in world­wi­de film finan­ce and production.”

“We are very plea­sed to be pro­du­cing this won­der­ful and fan­tasti­cal film in Aus­tra­lia. The Power of The Dark Crys­tal will show­ca­se the depth of talent Aus­tra­lia has to offer up on the inter­na­tio­nal sta­ge, inclu­ding the extre­me­ly gifted direc­ting team of

Peter Spie­rig and Micha­el Spie­rig. The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny has con­sist­ent­ly deli­ve­r­ed an ama­zing ran­ge of enter­tain­ment over genera­ti­ons and is an ico­nic crea­ti­ve stu­dio that we are proud to have part­ner with us,” added Chris­to­pher Mapp from Omni­lab Media. Micha­el Spie­rig said, “We feel a tre­men­dous amount of respon­si­bi­li­ty in tel­ling this sto­ry with the same meti­cu­lous care that Jim Hen­son and Frank Oz gave the 1982 ori­gi­nal.” Added Peter Spie­rig, “This is a chan­ce to take the world of pup­pe­try into the modern age by using modern tech­ni­ques (like moti­on cap­tu­re CGI) and the tried and true methods (like pup­pe­try and ani­ma­tro­nics) to crea­te a one hund­red per­cent real world that is uni­que to ‘The Dark Crystal’.”

Set hund­reds of years after the events of the first movie when the world has once again fal­len into darkness, “Power of the Dark Crys­tal” fol­lows the adven­tures of a mys­te­rious girl made of fire who, tog­e­ther with a Gel­f­ling out­cast, ste­als a shard of the legen­da­ry Crys­tal in an attempt to reig­ni­te the dying sun that exists at the cen­ter of the planet.

ABOUT OMNILAB MEDIA www.omnilab.com.au

Omni­lab Media is an Aus­tra­li­an and New Zea­land based glo­bal­ly focu­sed ver­ti­cal­ly inte­gra­ted enter­tain­ment com­pa­ny invol­ved in the pro­duc­tion, visu­al effects, post pro­duc­tion and finan­cing of a diver­se ran­ge of film and tele­vi­si­on pro­per­ties. Amongst the fun­ding deals recent­ly con­clu­ded by Omni­lab Media, covering both pro­duc­tion and P&A finan­cing, are Oli­ver Stone’s ‘W’, ‘The Bank Job’, ‘The Mes­sen­ger’, ‘’Bran Nue Dae,’ and the upco­m­ing ‘Dyl­an Dog: Dead of Night’, ‘The Loved Ones,’ ‘Tomor­row When the War Began’, and ‘The Kil­ler Élite.’

Omni­lab Media has also crea­ted a new digi­tal film com­pa­ny with Ken­ne­dy Mil­ler Mit­chell (Dr.D Stu­di­os) to use ground­brea­king digi­tal sto­ry­tel­ling, ani­ma­ti­on and visu­al effects. The first pro­duc­tion will be HAPPY FEET 2, with a ran­ge of other blue- chip pro­per­ties in development.

ABOUT AMBIENCE ENTERTAINMENT www.ambienceentertainment.com

Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment was ori­gi­nal­ly foun­ded as a post pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny in 1999 and in 2003 dip­ped it’s toe into the pro­duc­tion are­na with the crea­ti­on of The Pop Pups. In 2004 Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment was acqui­red by Omni­lab Media to crea­te con­tent for group and has sin­ce grown into one of Australia’s fas­test gro­wing inde­pen­dent film and tele­vi­si­on pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies dedi­ca­ted to pro­du­cing com­pel­ling film and tele­vi­si­on pro­grams for local and inter­na­tio­nal broad­cas­ters and audi­en­ces. With a well-ear­ned repu­ta­ti­on for qua­li­ty, Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment spe­cia­li­zes in fea­ture films, game shows, children’s pro­gramming and animation.

Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment is the con­tent and pro­duc­tion divi­si­on of the Omni­lab Media, Australia’s lar­gest inde­pendent­ly owned ver­ti­cal­ly inte­gra­ted media com­pa­ny. This alli­an­ce has enab­led Ambi­ence Enter­tain­ment to deve­lop its own dis­tinc­ti­ve tele­vi­si­on and film con­tent with the stra­te­gic goal of signi­fi­cant­ly incre­a­sing its pro­duc­tion output.

The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny has remai­ned an estab­lis­hed lea­der in fami­ly enter­tain­ment for over 50 years and is reco­gni­zed world­wi­de as an inno­va­tor in pup­pe­try, ani­ma­tro­nics and digi­tal ani­ma­ti­on. Best known as creators of the world famous Mup­pets, Hen­son has recei­ved over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Gram­my Awards. Recent credits inclu­de the Emmy® nomi­na­ted “Sid the Sci­ence Kid,” “Dino­saur Train” “Wil­son & Ditch: Dig­ging Ame­ri­ca” and “Paj­ani­mals.” Fea­tures inclu­de “The Dark Crys­tal,” “Laby­rinth,” “Mir­ror­Mask,” and “Unsta­ble Fables” and tele­vi­si­on pro­duc­tions inclu­de “Fragg­le Rock” and the sci-fi cult seri­es “Far­scape.”

With addi­tio­nal loca­ti­ons in New York and Lon­don, The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny is head­quar­te­red in Los Ange­les on the his­to­ric Char­lie Chap­lin lot, com­ple­te with sounds­ta­ge and post­pro­duc­tion faci­li­ties. Inde­pendent­ly owned and ope­ra­ted by the five adult child­ren of foun­der Jim Hen­son, the Com­pa­ny is also home to Jim Henson’s Crea­tu­re Shop™, a pre-emi­nent cha­rac­ter-buil­ding and visu­al effects group with inter­na­tio­nal film, tele­vi­si­on and adver­ti­sing cli­ents, as well as Hen­son Record­ing Stu­di­os, one of the music industry’s top record­ing faci­li­ties known for its world-class blend of sta­te-of-the-art and vin­ta­ge equipment.

The Company’s Hen­son Alter­na­ti­ve brand recent­ly laun­ched the New York run of “Stuf­fed and Unstrung,” a live pup­pet impro­vi­sa­tio­nal show at the Uni­on Squa­re Theat­re. www.henson.com